Fast Break

Last night, I turned on my computer at home to hear my monitor make a large “pop”, followed by the smell of something burning. Not good. It pretty much went UCLA in the finals on me. So, pardon if posting is a little more sporadic while I figure out how to afford a new computer and a new baby within three weeks of each other.

Ahh, bullet points, an overworked blogger’s best friend….

• Some great sports day in LA Monday, huh? Just like I predicted. The Dodgers are clearly built like the classic Dodger teams of the past, to win with pitching and defense. Ugh. (To be fair, as of this posting Brad Penny is doing much better on Tuesday.)

And did someone pick UCLA to win? Florida was clearly the better team. And add me to the list (along with everyone else) who thinks that Noah can be a good pro. As it did Knickerblogger, Noah strikes me as a Marcus Camby in the NBA, which a lot of teams could use.

• The Phil Jackson/Bernie Bickerstaff jabs aside (but they are pretty amusing), the suggestion that the Lakers may want Rush back was floated by the LA Times.

Really? Yes, he knows the triangle and he’ll be cheap. But outside of hitting the three pointer fairly well (34.4% for his career, better the last few years) his overall shooting has never been great (47.1% true shooting percentage this year, and his carrer average is below 50%). And he’s not a good defender, he’s below average and often disinterested. I’m not Sasha’s biggest fan, but we’re already paying him for next year and he’ll basically give us the same production (very similar offensive numbers). Heck, I’d rather bring Profit back than add Rush.

• Interesting choice last Sunday by the non-porn star looking Van Gundy, choosing to use Luther Head to cover Kobe. As Kobe has shown both a great mid-range and beyond game plus a love of elevating to shooting over players his height or taller all season, covering Kobe with someone four-inches shorter and easy to shoot over was an interesting choice. Not a wise one, just interesting.

• There are some detailed breakdowns out there, but it looks more and more like the Lakers finish the season with 43 or 44 wins and get the seventh seed, which means Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs.

Coincidentally, the Lakers have two games left against the Suns. I’ll be watching and charting those to do some pre-playoff breakdowns, but I will add now that I think the one this Friday may be a poor example of what will come. It will the second game in two nights for the Lakers, traveling in to take on the fastest-paced team in the league. A good test, but not as good a measure of what could happen in the playoffs, especially the first round, when teams tend to get plenty of rest. Not that rest is all the Lakers need to beat the Suns…

• Just to amuse yourself, here is several minutes of Shawn Bradley getting dunked on.